CTU Politics

Struggle Against Union-Busting in the Pandemic

Chicago Teachers in the Eye of the Storm

For Teacher-Student-Parent-Worker Control of Reopening Schools

By Class Struggle Education Workers

A student holds a sign outside meeting on “defunding” Chicago's school police. All police and security guards out of the schools, and out of the unions!
(Photo: Voices of Youth in Chicago Education)

For over a month, a tense stand-off between the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and Mayor Lori Lightfoot – who controls Chicago Public Schools (CPS) – was the focal point in a nationwide tug-of-war over reopening schools, many closed since last spring due to COVID-19. Union-bashers like Forbes magazine (4 February) called on the CPS to “learn from the 1981 air controllers strike,” where Ronald Reagan declared the walkout illegal and fired every striker. In mid-January, Lightfoot locked out nearly 150 teachers from Google Classroom accounts and cut off their pay for continuing to teach remotely and refusing the CPS order to return to elementary schools, even as city residents were being told to stay at home. Union members reported that buildings were “filthy” and “in various states of disrepair” with inadequate ventilation.

The media has portrayed the conflict as the union opposing opening schools, yet the CTU put forward a number of specific demands for safely reopening. What the fight was really about was union-busting: a high-handed mayor backed by super-rich privatizing education “reformers” (including well-connected Democrats) sought to force the teachers to their knees. A barrage of anti-CTU articles (including in the Sun-Times, part-owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor) was part of a national drive to blame teacher unions for keeping schools closed and to stir up parents against them. While the CPS was forced to backpedal, even as talks were in final stages, the mayor went ballistic, accusing the union of “leaving us with a big bag of nothing” and again raising the threat of a lockout. In short, this was a fight for all workers.

The clash in Chicago is part of a surge of labor battles across the country in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. In some places, workers have taken the initiative, as in the strike last May by fruit packinghouse workers in Yakima, Washington, and more recently the Teamster strike at the giant Hunts Point produce market in New York City in January as well as the drive for union recognition under way at Amazon in Bessemer, Alabama. More commonly, employers are out to bust unions and organizing drives with lockouts and brass-knuckled intimidation tactics. The Guardian (26 January) reported on “US companies using the pandemic as a tool to break unions,” highlighting the lockout of Chicago teachers and the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team owners’ replacement of IATSE[1] arena workers with non-union managers.

In that “Framework for Resumption of In-Person Instruction,” approved by a 2-1 majority vote of the 25,000-member CTU on February 9, CPS still refused to agree to provide vaccination for all teachers before being required to return to school, and did not provide accommodations to teach remotely for all who have household members with medical risk. 

The CPS initially had no plan for vaccinating teachers; in the agreement, the city agreed to provide 2,000 immediate vaccinations for pre-kindergarten and special education staff, and “at least 1,500 first vaccine doses per week to CPS employees.” Pushing back the dates for students returning to school (K-to-5 on March 1, grades 6 to 8 on March 8), a month after originally planned, will enable more teachers and staff to be vaccinated. (Now the school board has done a  full 180 and is talking about requiring vaccination.) CPS agreed to juggle schedules to provide more accommodations for those with at-risk household members, while gratuitously forcing some on unpaid leave rather than letting them teach remotely. State regulations require masking for everyone in schools.

For Union-Led Teacher-Student-Parent-Worker Control of the Schools

A key issue is the demand for an elected Board of Education to replace mayoral control which has been a hot issue for decades. The virulently anti-labor Chicago Tribune (4 March) headlined, “Fight for an elected CPS board ‘not going to go away’.” Lori Lightfoot supported this demand until she was elected mayor. Now she says, “We would never have opened without mayoral control.” She still claims to be for an elected school board, but comes up with all sorts of reasons why it’s not practical right away. One thing is true, though: in any election these days big money will play a big role. Leading capitalists have shown they are prepared to spend millions on influencing (buying) school board elections and pushing charter schools, in Los Angeles (Eli Broad), Oakland (Michael Bloomberg), Seattle (Bill Gates) and elsewhere.

As schools were reopening in New York City last fall, Class Struggle Education Workers stressed that this is a key moment to “fight against mayoral dictatorship, and for educator-led control of the schools by councils of teachers, students, parents and workers.” Even elected school boards preside over huge bureaucracies and are subject to pressure from bourgeois politicians and billionaire “philanthropists” pushing charters, standardized tests (Common Core, S.A.T.), teacher evaluations (merit pay, test scores), etc. Public education, with its steady cash flow, attracts contractors, vendors and privatizers, all seeking to turn the schools into profit platforms amid the falling profit rates of decaying capitalism. And they all want to break the power of teachers unions.

To defeat this onslaught and provide quality education for all, it is urgent to take control of the schools out of the grip of the Democrats, plutocrats and educrats and place it in the hands of those actually involved in public education. 

Break with the Democrats – Cops Out of the Schools!

A serious fight to win all the union’s safety demands, as well as to ensure drastically lower class sizes (see “Chicago Mayor Tries to Bully Teachers: “Show Up or Showdown,” below), would have required a hard-fought strike against Democratic administrations from Chicago to Springfield and Washington. The union leadership was not prepared to do that. On the contrary, from the CTU in Chicago to the AFT and NEA nationwide, the teachers unions are bound hand and foot to the Democratic Party. In many states they constitute the Democrats’ apparatus, doing most of the phone-banking and door-to-door canvassing. Yet despite Joe Biden’s claim that he would be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” the Democratic Party is a capitalist party, defending the interests of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Wal-Mart, Loop bankers and the Chicago Board of Trade against the working people, including teachers.

This fight is a continuation of a long history of Democratic Party attacks on the teachers union in Chicago. In 1995, Democratic mayor Richard M. Daley – citing the fact that the CTU struck nine times between 1969 and 1987 – imposed mayoral control of city schools. He also pushed through Section 4.5 of the Illinois Labor Relations Act, allowing the CPS to refuse to bargain over various school issues, notably class size. Daley, who held office for 22 years, from 1989 to 2011, also looked for every opportunity to axe union jobs and privatize. Democratic mayor Rahm Emanuel (President Barack Obama’s former chief of staff), in office from 2011 to 2019, campaigned for office by declaring war on the CTU. Democratic mayor Lightfoot, called for repeal of Section 4.5 in her election campaign, but reversed course on taking office.

One important reason why the CTU didn’t fight for smaller class sizes in the recent stand-off is that its leaders hope they’re about to overturn Section 4.5. This blatantly anti-labor law only applies to bargaining with “an educational employer whose territorial boundaries are coterminous with those of a city having a population in excess of 500,000” (guess where in Illinois that might be!). Bills to repeal it have been passed by both houses of the state legislature and the legislation is now on Democratic governor J.B. Pritzker’s desk awaiting his signature. Sharkey and other CTU tops doubtless want to make nice with the governor (who was endorsed in the 2018 election by the Illinois Federation of Labor and the CTU executive board, but not the House of Delegates), to show that they can play by the rules.

Yet those rules, and capitalist “law and order” generally, are stacked against labor, workers and the oppressed. Whether it’s Section 4.5 in Illinois or New York’s no-strike Taylor Law, these are measures by which capital ties the hands of workers’ organizations. Another is SB7, the bill approved in 2011 by CTU-endorsed Democratic governor Pat Quinn that amended the Illinois School Code to require three-quarters of all members of a bargaining unit (like the CTU) to vote to strike for it to be legal. Labor bureaucrats often hide behind these anti-union laws to head off calls for militant action. CTU then-president Karen Lewis actually supported SB7 and CTU leaders met secretly with Democrats in preparing it. But in order to defend the unions, it is necessary to prepare the ranks to defy such laws. Playing by the bosses’ rules is sure to lose.

Lewis died on the eve of the CPS-CTU deal and was widely eulogized, in particular for standing up to the bully Rahm Emanuel early on. Yet in the 2012 strike, after a vigorous week on the picket lines, when “King Rahm” called on the courts to ban the walkout, the CTU leadership under the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (C.O.R.E.) buckled, ramming through a sellout contract. The settlement was followed by the racist closure of 49 Chicago schools in 2013.

C.O.R.E. has been deeply enmeshed in Democratic Party politics since winning control of the union in 2010.[6] Even as a supporter of the now-defunct International Socialist Organization when he was union vice president, Sharkey has endorsed Democrats over and over. The CTU pushed hard for Democrat Jesús “Chuy” García for mayor in 2015, for Obama and now Biden as U.S. president. In the 2020 election the CTU endorsed 43 candidates for the state legislature, all Democrats. And last December, Sharkey and other local AFT leaders penned a letter to president-elect Biden, presented at a photo op with AFT leader Weingarten, saying that “having one of our own in the White House” gave them “hope.”

Despite the blatant efforts to nail the unions by one Democratic mayor after another, the AFT and CTU leaders’ strategy is to chain union power to this bosses party, even as it keeps kicking them in the teeth. As Jim Vail of the Second City Teacher blog (1 February) noted, one of the main forces behind Mayor Lightfoot’s diktat ordering teachers back to school no matter what, was the sinister outfit Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), which has long attacked the CTU, and teachers unions in general. During the standoff over Chicago schools, DFER president Shavar Jeffries “said powerful teachers unions are standing in the way of bringing back students,” according to an AP (31 January) dispatch. The group, a creature of multi-billionaire hedge fund operators who seek to feed off charter schools, earlier put forward CPS CEO Jackson as a candidate for Biden’s education secretary.

Now Biden’s U.S. Department of Education has sent letters to state education departments saying that they must hold federally mandated standardized tests this year, even though most students around the country are having remote instruction. This is ridiculous! It can’t measure “the impact COVID-19 has had on learning,” as the tests were not held last school year, and this year conditions are so chaotic, with online learning burnout and traumatized students, it’s impossible to measure anything. 

There is also the presence of police in the schools, where they criminalize African American and Latino students. Last summer, as tens of thousands marched in Chicago along with millions across the U.S. to denounce racist police murder, the CTU called a demo to “defund the police,” attended by many students. On June 24, the school board voted 4-3 to keep cops in the schools. In December, the CTU called on CPS to hire more counselors, and fund them by “reallocating funds from the Chicago Police Department.” We have explained that the calls to “abolish the police” are a liberal/reformist utopia, while simply transferring money from one budget line to will change nothing.[8] But we have long called for getting all police – and security guards – out of the schools, and out of the unions.[9] As schools reopen, the CTU should insist that they be cop-free. Starting now!

This underscores that the battle over the schools must be part and parcel of the broader struggle against racist capitalism. As we have noted, Joe Biden was not only the author of the infamous 1994 Crime Bill that escalated mass incarceration in black ghettos, but also in the 1970s he made a name for himself leading the segregationist pack in Congress in opposing school integration through busing. Yet desegregating Chicago’s schools must be a top priority for teachers in a city where 60% of the population and 83% of the 341,000 students (pre-pandemic) are black and Latino. 

Oust the Bureaucrats – For a Class-Struggle Workers Party!

Most of the left has acted along with other “progressives” as a cheering squad for the CTU leadership. This includes the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), which had not a word against the Democratic Party (“Chicago Teachers Union’s commitment to democracy pays off,” Liberation, 2 February); and the Maoist Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), which called in the 2020 election to “defeat Trump,” i.e., vote for Biden (“Chicago Teachers Union ratifies framework agreement for return to in-person learning,” Fightback, 11 February). In These Times (10 February), speaking for the right wing of the Democratic (Party) Socialists of America (DSA) gushed: “After Threatening Strike, Chicago Teachers Set ‘New Standard’ With Safer School Reopening Plan.” Jacobin (20 February), for the DSA “lefts,” was more equivocal, citing Sharkey saying, “This is not the agreement you deserve.”

Socialist Alternative (SAlt), on the other hand, sides with keep-the-schools-closed advocates who voted against the agreement, criticizing Biden and the Weingarten leadership of the AFT (“Chicago: Lessons from the Fight Against Lori Lightfoot’s Reckless School Reopening,” 1 March). While SAlt criticizes “CORE’s capitulation at the bargaining table in 2021,” it looks back to its “fighting roots.” Yet even before taking office, C.O.R.E. leaders were bureaucrats-in-training. After a long wish-list of liberal/reformist demands, SAlt calls to “completely transform our current education system,” but doesn’t say what that would consist of or how it would come about (nothing about socialist revolution, of course). And the fake-militant posturing is belied by SAlt star Seattle councilwoman Kshama Sawant’s announcement that she had joined the DSA.

Then there are the rabid wannabe union-busters of the “World Scab Web Site” (WSWS), which has been pushing the keep-’em-closed line with a phantom “Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee.” At the same time, it called on workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama to vote “no” on union recognition.[10]

The Chicago Teachers Union has periodically gone on strike against Democratic mayors who have attacked labor rights. It has opposed racist school closures and called for rent abatements, though typically those demands serve as window dressing and evaporate when it gets down to concrete strike demands. It has won some notable strikes, such as the first-ever charter school strike in December 2018, when 15 CTU-represented charters affiliated with the Acero chain won salary realignment with the CPS pay scale, reduced class size and a commitment to be sanctuary schools for undocumented immigrant students. But more often the C.O.R.E. leadership has sold out at the bargaining table, just as its bureaucratic predecessors did.

At bottom, the CTU/C.O.R.E.’s “social justice unionism” is simply a more activist version of simple labor militancy and “union democracy.” It is incapable of taking on the capitalist state, or breaking with the Democratic Party, and is in fact subordinated to them. Yet those are the tasks at hand. As we wrote of the 2012 strike: “Only class-struggle unionism that openly fights against capitalism can defeat the class war on workers and the oppressed. The unions were built by ‘reds’ who relied on the working class not the employers and their government” (in “Chicago Teachers: Strike Was Huge, Settlement Sucks”). What’s needed is to cohere a class-struggle opposition to the class-collaborationist CTU bureaucrats, to break with the Democrats and all capitalist parties and politicians, and build a workers party fighting for a workers government.

Next up: reopening the high schools

To read the entire article click here:

http://edworkersunite.blogspot.com/2021/03/chicago-teachers-in-eye-of-storm.html 

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[1] International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 28.

[2] See “The Fight Over Reopening Schools Is a Class Battle,” The Internationalist No. 61, September-October 2020, where we analyze the evidence showing limited spread of the coronavirus among children (particularly those of elementary and middle school age) and the damage to students’ education, social development and mental health of remote-only schooling. Experience from school reopening in the fall only confirms these facts.

[3] See “A Class-Struggle Program to Reopen New York City Schools Safely,” The Internationalist No. 61, September-October 2020.

[4] See John Dewey, “New Schools for a New Era,” in Marxism and the Battle Over Education, The Internationalist special supplement (2d. edition), January 2008.

[5] See “Chicago Teachers: Strike Was Huge, Settlement Sucks,” The Internationalist, September 2012.

[6] See “Lessons of Chicago CORE,” The Internationalist No. 33, Summer 2011.

[7] See “Teachers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Stop Work to Stop High-Stakes Test,” in The Internationalist, Summer 2012.

[8] “‘Abolish the Police’ Under Capitalism?” The Internationalist No. 60, May-July 2020.

[9] Security guards should be removed from SEIU Local 73 (representing CPS staff) and from the schools altogether. Along with aggressive treatment of students generally, CPS security guards have been accused of hundreds of cases of sexual misconduct a year.

[10] See “How the ‘World Scab Web Site’ Aids the Bosses,” The Internationalist, January 2021

 

Class Struggle Education Workers (CSEW) is part of the fight for a revitalization and transformation of the labor movement into an instrument for the emancipation of the working class and the oppressed.  See the CSEW program here.

 

Posted 6 days ago by CLASS STRUGGLE EDUCATION WORKERS

Story Telling

A STORY IS STRONGER THAN A TSAR

Why I like Andrei Platonov's Tale 'Wool Over the Eyes'

By Stephen Wilson

 

           If any story is well-worth telling it's Andrei Platonov's alluring and charming fairy tale 'Wool over the Eyes'. I recommend this to any teacher and lover of anecdotes. This story is one of the folk tales which I love to tell. And one of the reasons I adore this story is that it seems to work at all the story telling events I perform it at. Practically most audiences find it amusing. Of course, how you tell this yarn is undeniably important. But as a story people tend to find it amusing, alluring and thought provoking. Before telling this story I keep it a secret that it is a Russian folktale and that it was written by the Russian writer Andrei Platonov. I try to get the audience to guess the nationality and author of this revised version of an old folk tale. Some people answer back that it is a Scottish or Irish tale which indicates the similarity of so many tales over the World. Unfortunately very few spectators guess that it is a tale written by Andrei Platonov. It seems Platonov is an unjustly neglected author! And even people who are aware of Platonov through his novels such as 'The Foundation Pit' and 'Happy Moscow' tend to overlook the charming fairy tales in his collection 'The Magic Ring'. That is all the more reason why people should make more of an effort to tell this story in either Russian or English.

 

The story 'Wool Over the Eyes' has many catch phrases. Many people are fond of quoting a character from Bulgakov's 'The Master and Margarita', who theatrically declares with gusto 'Manuscripts don't burn'. It became a kind of war cry for the intelligentsia who interpreted it as implying no amount of repression can repress or destroy brilliant artistic works. Less people are aware of a phrase from Platonov's  story where the author states, 'A Story is stronger than a tsar.'

 

The title of this tale in Russian is Moroka or {морока} which can have many meanings in Russian such as being rendered disorientated, confused or losing one's grip on reality. It can also mean being deceived and led up the garden path. For instance, my wife Svetlana told me, "Once we got lost in the forest for five hours and could not find our way out. When we got home our neighbor Tamara told us we had got lost because the forest spirit had disorientated us through his magic. And the verb for this is 'morochit' or {морочить}."There are countless stories where Russians still claim they have got lost in the forest because of the malice of wood spirits called Leshii. I can well understand the translation of this word confounding people, but what astonishes me is why do we read in the Russian version that  the soldier orders wine but in the English version it becomes vodka! {Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov edited by Robert Chandler}. Apart from this liberty in the English version the tale is well translated.

 

The tale is endowed with lively dramatic dialogue and action where events smoothly unfold. There is plenty of humor and sharp wit in this story which amounts to a duel of wits between a soldier and a tsar. A colleague Maria Koroleva liked to quote Platonov's famous statement on the importance of collecting and publishing such tales. Platonov once stated, 'It is essential to publish the entire corpus of Russian folktales. This body of work, in addition to the artistic and ethical value, must also serve as a material repository for the treasure of the Russian language, our people's most precious possession'. But we should do much more. Not just publish but tell those stories face to face and fully restore the bedroom stories so as to bring them completely to life! Maria Koroleva wrote, 'The ancient art of the oral poetic tradition - is the deepest and brightest of all our activities. A tale can be a blessing on the listeners, bring consolation, and bestow the gift of experience, and return us to the belief in miracles where the hero lives in each of us.'{2010}

 

The tale 'Wool Over the Eyes' can be told not just for amusement. It can also instruct listeners about how telling an innocuous story could lead to punishment, imprisonment and even death. In Scotland and Ireland a poet could be put to death for telling a story during the 16th century. Platonov knew the danger of telling stories from bitter experience. His major works were banned in Russia and Stalin referred to him as 'scum'. Platonov found refuge in rewriting some old Russian folk tales.

 

The basic plot of the story revolves around a soldier who is discharged from the army after 25 years of service. But before returning to his village he thinks he will look foolish unless he can claim to have seen the face of the tsar so he goes to the tsar's palace to do this. The soldier has one great gift; he can tell stories in such away the listener is bewitched into thinking that the events around him are really happening. The tsar also likes to tell stories and pose riddles for people to resolve. He presents three riddles for the soldier to resolve which the soldier does. The soldier is rewarded with money which he spends in a nearby tavern. In the tavern, the soldier spends all his money on wine but orders more. The inn-keeper, who is quite mean, asks whether he has enough money to pay and the soldier lies 'yes'. The inn-keeper asks the soldier to tell him a story. The soldier tells a story in such a way he convinces the inn-keeper he is a bear. Since he is a bear, who needs no inn, he should just drink and invite everyone for free to his place. "Let's drink and feast! Be a true host- bid the world be your guest! Bears can't be landlords - and we can't let your goods go to waste". The landlord wakes up to find all his inn devoid of furniture and that the soldier is nowhere in sight. He has vanished. The inn-keeper protests to the tsar in vain that he has been tricked by the soldier.

 

The tsar finds the soldier and orders his men to bring him to his palace. The tsar believes the soldier won't be able to 'pull the wool over my ears. ' Unfortunately, to the tsar's horror, the soldier does this very thing. He convinces the tsar he is a fish and the fish swims into a net where he is caught, taken and decapitated. The tsar awakes from the story gripping nervously to his head. In anger, the tsar orders the soldier to leave and for everyone in the kingdom to deny him work and an abode. The soldier finds himself blacklisted and 'persona non grata'.

He is eventually allowed to stay overnight at the home of a peasant in exchange for telling stories. The soldier tells around 100 stories which greatly moves his host to tears. When the peasant listens, halfway through the tale he smiled. Then he began to listen more deeply. Towards the end of the tale he quite forgot who he was. He was no longer a peasant, but a bandit. Or he was tsar of the ocean, or just one of the poor, but a very wise wanderer- or perhaps a fool. But really nothing was happening at all. There was only an old soldier- sitting close by, twitching his lips and muttering away.'

 

The host being grateful, tells the soldier that listening to his tales is a pleasure as 'It's a joy to the heart and food for thought'. The host offers everything in his home to the soldier for his travels and asks him to drop in again any time. So the soldier ends up wandering from house to house earning his food by telling stories.

 

When telling this story it is important to involve the audience by asking them rhetorical questions as well as asking them to solve riddles. You can choose other riddles for people to solve rather than the ones from the stories. If any of the audience are brave enough you might ask them whether they want to tell one of the stories the soldier might have narrated! I don't see any harm in rewarding any of the audience with a small prize for solving a riddle or telling a poem or story! Another question you might ask the audience from time to time is, 'What do you think happened next?' or even the question which Platonov asks in the story 'What does a soldier do after sentry duty? What do you think? ' Platonov's answer is 'He tells stories!' But the audience can come up with their own answers! In reality soldiers did not just tell stories, but often had to mend their clothes, grow their own food and practice all kinds of trades just to get by otherwise they would have starved!  And what about the soldier? Is he a shaman or a con artist? I think the audience must draw their own conclusions!

 

The story in English can be found in Penguin classics -Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov, Edited by Robert Chandler, New York, London, 2012.

 

In Russian you can find it in Школьная Библиотека, Андрей Платонов, Неизвестный цветок, Москва, 2012

 

HOD 3-21

Report on the Meeting of the House of Delegates on March 3, 2021

By George Milkowski

I. Officer Reports

A. Recording Secretary Christel Williams-Hayes – Christel had a family emergency so there was no report from her except approval of the minutes of the previous House meeting.  This item was presented by Maria Moreno.

B. Financial Report Kathy Catalano – Kathy said Union dues provide 90% of our budget and we have received $1,007,236 more in dues at this time compared to last year and have $453,256 more after our “pass throughs” to the IFT and AFT.  However, we also have $452,755 more in unbudgeted expenses due to COVID related action plus $111,363 more in costs for meetings. so we have about a net zero situation.  Our current excess in funds is $186,327.

C. Recording Secretary Maria Moreno – Our membership is up by 164 and currently stands at 28,311, of which 1,748 are retiree members.  

    Maria announced that a list of 27 candidates running for 17 retiree delegate positions will be mailed out.  This list is just to inform retirees as to who is running (I am) and an actual Scantron ballot will be mailed out on March 17.

D. Vice President Stacy Davis Gates  - Stacy took some time off.  Jesse said she really deserved this as she did so much during negotiations with the CPS over in person re-opening.  Plus, Jesse’s mother was ill and died in December and Stacy took on the lion’s share of work of running the Union at that time.

II. President’s Report – Jesse Sharkey

Pres. Sharkey recognized the feelings of clerks and techs who ended up going back into the school buildings when the CPS ignored the ruling of an arbitrator.  He understands that they feel like “canaries in the coal mine” and that some CTU members are disappointed at the agreement with the Board but he feels that our unity is important and now we have to concentrate on enforcing the agreement.  He said the new safety committees in schools are critical, especially since the CPS has $280,000,000 in COVID relief funds available to mitigate any problems.  He also assumes that high schools will re-open following the existing pattern but it is more complicated as teens are more likely to transmit the virus and it is impossible to have small pods of students in the high schools.

III. Item for Action

At  two previous meetings there were proposals that the Union give $2,000 to those members who lost income when they were locked out of teaching by the Board when they refused to re-enter school buildings.  A Union committee looked at the situation and decided a flat $2,000 grant would be unfair as some lost only a day or two of income while others lost 3-4 weeks on income.  Instead, the CTU has set up a “hardship committee” to which those who lost income can apply for grants and receive them after they document their loses.  Jesse estimates it would take about $300,000 to make everyone whole and so far the Union had about $203,000 available for those in need; $100,000 came from the AFT and about an$103,000 came from a GoFundMe site.  The CTU will ask all members who can to contribute to the fund.  The motion passed 84% to 9% with about 8% abstaining.  Delegates were also asked to agree to contribute and most of us, myself included, agreed to donate over $100 each, resulting in an additional $40,000 raised for the fund.  One delegate asked if we had a court case trying to get the money from the Board.  Jesse said yes but he felt it is unlikely we would win.

IV. Department/Committee Reports

A1. Organizing – Rebecca Martinez – The CTU has had bout 300 members who came in for training for the new school safety committees.  Rebecca stressed that delegates cannot let principals get control of these committees.  The CTU has prepared a preliminary checklist for the committees to use since the CPS has not agreed to a common checklist in concert with the Union as the CPS had said they would do,

A2. Grievance Report – Zeidre Foster – The Union has received a lot of complaints about the CPS dragging its feet on accommodating a number of members under the aegis of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  

The CTU is defending members who have been or have been threatened with discipline for speaking to parents about the return to schools.  Of 114 cases 80 have been dropped and the CTU expects to win the remaining 34.  In regard to this, the CTU filed an Unfair Labor Practice last week.

B. Political/Legislative - Kurt Hilgendorf – Kurt announced that the Governor has still not signed HB 2275, the bill that would fully restore bargaining rights to the CTU.  All are urged to call his office and ask that he sign it.  The Chicago number is 312-814-2121.

We need to work on passage of SB2497/HB2908.  This legislation would establish an elected representative school board in Chicago.  Chicago is the only school district in the entire State that does NOT have an elected school board.

The CTU also asks that you contact your legislators to sponsor and support SB577/HB114.  If passed this law would require charter schools to agree to neutrality in attempts by employees to form a union.

Lastly, HB 18 would have tenured teachers be evaluated every three years instead of every two years.

C. CTU-ACTS – Chris Baehrend – Chris reported that some charter schools want to re-open with lower safety standards than the CPS.  Passages schools is the most stubborn.

Cicero High School announced a return to school without negotiations with the union.  They had previously said they would negotiate before re-opening.

Lastly, Chris reported that his school, Latino Youth, is on its 28th week of faculty and staff ignoring orders to return to the buildings and there has been no actions taken against anyone

V. New Business/Questions and Answers

Charlotte Brent (retired) asked what is to be done if a student doesn’t wear a mask.  Jesse said that unless they have a verifiable medical reason, they have to wear one.  

Karen Soto (Waters) asked who is in charge of the air quality monitors that are supposed to be used in every room if the engineer is assigned to more than one school and therefor not always available?   Jesse said to talk with the principal for starters.

Sandi Hoggatt (Kenwood), a new delegate, asked about the salary of CTU staff.  Jesse  explained that those matters are determined in May and June and are part of the CTU’s annual budget.

Mary Esposito (clinician) asked what is to be done when Pre – K staff were denied 3 ¼ hours prep time that everyone else was given.  Jesse said that this issue has been raised with the CPS already and so far they are ignoring us on it.

Karen Trine (Young) asked about a CTU constitutional amendment that would allow PSRPs in a school to become a union delegate or alternate delegate.  Jesse said the Union is looking into developing such an amendment.

Intl Women's Day

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

FLOWERS ARE NOT ENOUGH!

By Stephen Wilson

 

'Tulips are not a plantain against domestic violence' or rather {Tulips won't heal the wounds of domestic violence} lamented the words on a small art poster that had been pasted up on a bus stop in Moscow. A plantain is a plant which people rub on to their skin if they have been stung by nettles and is supposed to relieve the pain. In the center of the picture was a beautifully painted eye weeping tears of blood. An old woman also standing by me told me, "How silly? How negative! What does it mean? Why has someone put this up? I don't understand this picture," shaking her head in bemusement. I explained to her that I understood it to mean it was a protest against domestic violence against women, that this is a serious problem and that some women believe that giving flowers on International Women's Day is scant compensation. But the women did not understand saying something about 'Abstract art' being beyond her and thought it ridiculous. Yesterday I had noticed that 4 other such art posters had been put up on notice boards only to be quickly ripped down.

 

I found the posters with striking images and succinct messages arrested your attention. It was at least a brave attempt to raise a burning issue. And the women are surely right to claim that the giving of flowers on International Women's Day is poor compensation for the violence against women which scars and mars human relations. For the issue of violence against women is often raised by Feminists on International Women's Day. Some sociological studies indicate that as many as one out of four Russian women have experienced violence and as many as 26,000 experience violence on a daily basis. According to Human Rights watchdog, {2013 survey} well over a thousand Russian women die every year yet the Russian government passed a law where beating a women was no longer regarded as a serious offence effectively giving a green light to abusers.  

 

What those posters and other protests indicate is that Feminism is on the rise in Russia and won't fade away or die down. Despite this it would be an error to depict 'men' as 'the enemy' and that all of them have a vested interest in keeping women down. Today I have witnessed many Russian men and boys who are genuinely striving to treat women much better and truly respect them. Not everyone uses this day to fob off women with the token banquet of flowers.

So what is to be done? What steps might be taken to at least improve this situation rather than fighting a counter productive war with lose lose results?

 

1. Firstly, I have noticed that in some quarters, women have been celebrating this day a bit longer than just one day. And why not? Why shouldn't men make an attempt to make women very happy not on just one day but a whole week? We should at least try to make an effort to do some things that make women happier. And if need be just ask what women want because it is not always clear. Even Freud said he could not answer the question 'What do women want?' But Freud never gave up asking the question and neither should any man relinquish seeking an answer. Step by step we might make 365 days of the year like International  Women's Day in the best sense of the word.

 

2. We need an urgent and radical preventive educational program to prevent violence against women. That is we have to tackle the very roots of violence. So young boys from an early age have to learn to refrain from any violence against women. At kindergartens, schools and within the family we should hammer into children the fact that any mental or physical abuse of girls is 'taboo' so that it does not become an ingrained habit. And the Orthodox church can play a profound and prominent role in this regard. Just as a person would never dream of damaging or breaking an Icon in church, then he should never dare to raise a hand to the human icon which is priceless. So treating women with dignity, respect and awe is part of 'the liturgy after the liturgy'.  There is a danger that violence against women, in deed anyone, can be 'normalized' and be seen as 'acceptable ' because everyone else is doing it. Some people will go to great efforts to 'rationalize' any evil and claim black is white! Part of the roots of violence arise from men feeling a very low sense of esteem as so called 'losers'. It is often a case that such people too were the victims of violence. That is the bully becomes the bully. Surely we should be attempting to  build rather than lower a person's self esteem. There is no doubt that one of the causes of domestic violence is rooted in a negative 'putting down society' which is so over-competitive it makes some people feel they are either total losers or total winners. Such a narrowed minded and myopic ethos renders people mad. Some people take out their negative emotions on the nearest person to hand. Abusers are not born but made!  

 

3. A new police force has to be made which is controlled and accountable to the people. That is a police force that intervenes to defend women against violence and assume real responsibility to fight crime rather than seeing their jobs as merely a lucrative means of getting an income.

 

4. Women should attain equal pay and their present role more acknowledged as say artists, scientists and writers. For instance, in the history of Russian art we too often hear about Wassily Kandinsky and Kasimir Malevich but not so much about Vera Yermolayeva, Anna Leporskaya and Yelena Guro. All the latter were very important artists of the Avant-garde who were part of a renaissance at the turn of the 20th century. For example, in 1939, Vera Yermolayeva painted the striking picture 'Lucretius points to the Sun' and Yelena Guru painted 'Woman in a headscarf,1910'. Thanks to the art historian Yevgeny Kovtun, 'Avant-Garde in Russia, 1920-1930', by Parkstone Aurora publishers,1996, I learnt about so many female artists which I had never previously heard of before. Can you imagine how many female artists have been overlooked and sentenced to ill deserved obscurity? Some art historians ought to launch a rescue operation to make their works more known!

The artist M. Matiushin did not forget the profound role of Yelena Guro as a catalyst of the renaissance in Russian art. He stated - 'I recall how Guro inspired me with the way she would invariably bare her soul in a natural setting as well as the constant intensity she applied to the observation in the creative process. Thus was constituted a creatively fruitful environment of solid and friendly support. As a result of this communion our achievements and new projects came into being'.

 

Student Survey

SURVEY SUGGESTS RUSSIAN STUDENTS ARE SEEKING A MORE ISSUE RELATED EDUCATION

By Stephen Wilson

 

            A recent survey undertaken by the Institute of Progressive Education which questioned children from grades 8 to 11, has found a deep level of dissatisfaction with some subjects which are taught in Russian schools. Many school students see them as providing irrelevant and useless information which won't in any way equip them with the practical day to day issues they face and confront in their lives. But such findings that the current Russian Education system is largely irrelevant and at times just torture in demanding they learn material which they quickly forget after exams and will never use  is a frequent allegation made by pupils, parents and even teachers who feel pressure to implement a program they have no say over. For instance, school students frequently complain they will never need to solve the complex math equations posed by teachers. In deed, some of the equations are more appropriate for university students rather than school students suggesting the people who designed such programs have failed to discern fundamental differences between school and university students.

 

As many as 76% of pupils claim that the existing school curriculum is out of date and largely irrelevant to contemporary society. The survey also found that 44% of students questioned felt the need for the introduction of Psychology as a subject, and 41% Financial Literacy and 31% would like to see Sex Education introduced into the curriculum. As many as 69% of pupils don't see the point of doing the subject 'Basics of Health and Safety', 57% see the subject of 'handcrafts' or 'Labor' as 'useless ' and 38% don't see the point of the subject of Astronomy.

It is quite clear from those findings that if school students had a choice they would scrap some subjects. What is significant is that school students believe that a subject such as psychology could provide useful tips on how to better communicate with their parents and school mates. They might be better able to maintain their self-esteem as well as handle their own complexes. One of the biggest problems which school students have is that many schools no longer provide a psychologist to offer helpful counselling and if such a psychologist is available they are unaware that such a service even exists! The demand for a topic such as Financial Literacy reflects the realistic worry that some day they will enter a world where they will have to pay the bills, tax and save money to deal with either rent or mortgages.

 

But one of the main predicaments of the existing education system is that the culture of it in some schools can be stifling, suffocating and at worst, blatantly repressive. Some Russian school teachers are surprised that in some parts of the World school students have a right to express an opinion and that their views should be respected. Yet we are seeing a situation where the authorities have been jailing some school students for expressing radical opinions or simply playing computer games or calling for people to go on demonstrations. The heavy weight of the Soviet past has hardly been decisively lifted. An example of such intolerance is when a school teacher denounced one of her own 15-year-old school students to the authorities for posting a tweet on a social site supporting a protest by the Communist party on the 23rd of February calling 'For a Russia without Oligarchs and palaces, and against political repression. We demand the release of all political prisoners, the creation of a people's army and police, cutting the cost of transport and utility bills, free education and medical care, a return to former age of retirement and organizing the payment of people who have suffered under Covid 19'.  Unfortunately, the deputy director of the school in Penze, Vera Makhonina, told the school student to delete such a post and that the school does not welcome such public statements. The teacher even denounced her own school student to the authorities requesting legal action be taken against her! The school student was threatened with reprisals. This is despite the fact that legally speaking, this pupil has broken no law and can at most, be referred to 'a police committee for minors'. The idea of this committee is to aid and assist vulnerable pupils going down the road of crime and not to repress school students for expressing political opinions disagreeable to this or that teacher. As far as I know, no legal action has been taken against this school student. Unsurprisingly, the parents of the school student are searching for another school which their daughter can attend.

 

Ideally, a school should be to help bring up pupils in the best sense of the World. This would be to encourage them to be curious, brave at expressing their views and to listen to other views which are different. However, all too often the existing view of 'bringing someone up ' implies pupils refrain from asking awkward questions, should obey authority at all costs and learn to be silent. But it also can consist in teaching school students that the main aim of bringing people up is to teach them that the main aim of life is to make as much money as possible. The aim is to instruct people that the main aim of life is to attain security, comfort and affluence rather than love and assist other people. This view of bringing people up is highly questionable and even dangerous. Concerning the topic 'Financial Literacy', it would be great if such a subject would be more courageously issue related. The teacher would encourage school students not only how to save and spend money but to freely discuss questions: "Why are so many people poor? Why are wages so low? And 'What is more important: to make money and build a career or do the right thing?'  One of the things such a topic might do is to at least demolish the myth that the primary cause of poverty in America and Russia is 'financial illiteracy'. Poverty is not caused by the vices, personal defects and low skills of the poor. In fact, as Adam Smith stated in his work 'The Wealth of Nations',  the poor are much more financially literate than the rich because one error can spell disaster for them. And more recently, Muhammad Yunus, in his work 'Banker to the Poor,' 1999, reached the same conclusion almost just over 200 years later. So the key issue is not just what subject should be taught but how it must be taught!  

*This article acknowledges the source of Irina Brichkalevich who wrote a brilliant article for Moskovskii Komsomolets titled, 'Komsomolka, beauty... and 'Extremist'? Deputy Director informs the authorities about a school student and her post about the protests of the Community Party of the Russian Federation, February, 2021.}

CFL

Report of the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) Delegates Meeting

March 2, 2021

By George Milkowski

 

1.         From the Minutes of the Executive Board March 1, 2021

            The CFL’s E-Board voted for a resolution celebrating the life of Karen Lewis.

            The E-Board also voted to support SEIU Local 73.  This Union conducted a 12 hour strike in December that affected the Cook County Hospital and health system and County Board President Preckwinkle is pursuing criminal and civil charges against the Union.  The CFL maintains that the strike was legal and offered its support to Local 73.

            The CFL will sponsor a 5K virtual walk and run in celebration of May Day.

            The CFL is working to set up COVID 19 vaccination sites that would be dedicated for inoculation of union members only.  The State and the City are already providing dedicated vaccinations for various companies and their workers so why not have one strictly for union members?

            Five of nine CFL endorsed candidates won in their elections on February 23.

            The CFL is hosting fundraisers for Ald. Samantha Nugent (March 3), Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch (March 15) and Illinois Senate President Don Harmon (March 29).

            Teamsters Local 710 is asking for support from the CFL in their negotiations with Jewel Food Stores.  The teamsters represent Jewel truck drivers and warehouse workers and a strike has been authorized although no date has been set to begin a strike.

 

2.         President’s Report

            President Bob Reiter presented the resolution to celebrate the life and legacy of Karen Lewis.  There were a number of delegates who spoke fondly of Karen, including CTU’s Debby Pope.

            Carol Pollitz is the CFL nominee for the Woman of the Year Award, which will be awarded next month.

            Pres. Reiter spoke of a “Shock and Awe” campaign in Orland Park.  The current mayor there is a Bruce Rauner acolyte that is very anti-union.  Reiter hopes that CFL political action there can make the current mayor a one termer and he hopes that we can use this campaign to show the power and influence of the Unions.  If you are interested in helping out, including phone banking, contact the CFL.

            The motion opposing Toni Preckwinkle seeking criminal and civil charges against SEIU Local 73 was presented and passed.

            Pres. Reiter spoke about the virtual 5K May Day run.  The purpose is raise money for COVID relief.  The entrance fee is $40 and there is a suggested route that would take the participants through areas of important Chicago labor history, although they could run any route that is convenient for them. To register, go to chicagolabor.org/mayday5K.

 

3.         Good and Welfare

            Scott Marshall, retired union steelworker and head of the local chapter of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR – of which I am a member) brought up the proposed opening of a recycling plant that is being moved from Lincoln Park to the 10^th Ward and suggested the CFL support this business because it would bring in more jobs.  Although Scott did mention residents’ objections of environmental racism, he asked the CFL to support it anyway.  Pres. Reiter said the CFL generally supports the new facility and referred to an EPA report that supposedly claims the relocated facility would be the cleanest recycling plant in the nation.  He also said that since Marshall did not have a formal resolution, that we should defer action on this until next month.  I would like to point out a number of things.  First, the CTU is supporting the community there against the business.  Second, the EPA report was written under the aegis of the Trump administration that has gutted a huge number of scientists and technicians in order to promote a pro-business agenda.  Lastly, today’s (March 3) Sun-Times had an article about this that cited a study done by the UIC a few years ago which recognized the increased expected amount of particulate matter in the air.  I plan to oppose a CFL resolution supporting the General Iron facility.

            Jill Hornick – AFGE L1395-SSA - spoke of Social Security offices being closed now for a full year and plans by the Social Security Administration to re-open a location on west Lunt.  Adjustments to the building would decrease the amount of space inside the office that would make any social distancing impossible.

            Lastly, Jorge Lara – NABET-CWA Local 41 – said his local is in negotiations with Telemundo (NBC) but the general manager is very anti-union.  Pres. Reiter said that across the county workers at Spanish language stations are almost always paid less then their counterparts at English language stations.

CTU Cancel

CTU Cancel Culture Declares War on Whistle Blowers & Those Who Question

By Jim Vail

Lindblom High School teacher Drew Heiserman
and long-time Core member and leader is about to be canceled.

The Chicago Teachers Union and its Core leadership team does not like free speech, whistle blowers or those who ask serious questions.

So they cancel them, in the spirit of cancel culture.

Drew Heiserman, a Core member who has been with the group since it began, is the latest victim.

The CTU executive board member and former Core steering committee member has been brought up on charges by the Core leadership team of harassment for asking questions about a recent pension election. 

While the outcome has yet to be determined, Core has demonstrated a pattern of ousting members in key positions who dare to blow a whistle or question what the leadership is doing.

I was kicked off the Political Action Committee because I didn't agree with the political agenda that aligned itself closely with the Democratic Party. Reggie O'Connor, who chaired the legislative committee was also booted from her position for asking questions the union did not like when it came to making certain political endorsements.

I asked CTU President Jesse Sharkey about this at a House of Delegates meeting and he said that the union will remove members from committees if they feel they are obstructing the work of the committee.

Former CTU field rep Joey McDermott questioned why certain union employees were involved in political campaigning when they were working on the union's dime. He was brought up on charges of misconduct and dismissed. McDermott filed a grievance to win his job back, charging the union with firing a whistle blower.

"I have filed four grievances specially alleging harassment, retaliation and/or discriminatory treatment," he wrote a year ago. "My alleged conduct was related to incidents while I reported illegal and/or ethical conduct. CTU staff campaigning for elected officials on work time."

McDermott said after his firing last year that over 200 people wrote letters on his behalf to be reinstated. He is currently teaching in high school.

When it comes to disciplining recalcitrant Core members, getting canceled happens more often than not. Earl Silbar was an associate member who pointed out the sell out the Core leadership engineered with SB7 that took away teachers' seniority rights. His criticism led the CTU Executive Board to issue a resolution denouncing the union's position on SB7. 

Earl was ousted.

Former Substance Editor George Schmidt, who has always been critical of union leadership while editing a muckraking newspaper for over 30 years, worked as a consultant to the union when Core was first elected in 2010. 

He too was brought up on certain charges for questioning the leadership and was about to be kicked out until a groundswell of support generated from many black teachers prevented Core was kicking him out.

Free speech is particularly not welcome, especially if you attend any official union meetings.

Former President Karen Lewis used to say, "Loose Lips Sink Ships," implying that teachers should keep their mouths shut when they attend delegates meeting or else they will cause harm for the union. That message rings loud and clear at almost every delegates meeting, where any of the officers will tell delegates to not say anything outside the meeting (unless it's in a closed room in their school building?). 

Core founder Jackson Potter implemented this strategy of attacking whistle blowers and warning teachers not to speak about what is discussed in union meetings. Before Core was elected union leaders never told teachers to keep their mouths shut.

Heiserman has been a member of CORE since 2008 when he served on the leadership team or Steering Committee. He was also the former editor of CORE Issues and chair of the CTU Public Relations and Communications Committee for 8 years. He was also a CTU Trustee who overlooks the union's finances and today serves as a CTU Area Vice President.

"I didn't (and still don't) trust the process because it is rooted in an attempt to punish me for being a whistleblower," he wrote in a letter to Core.

Heiserman questioned the allegations of "harassment" and "discrimination" against him when he did not name any Core members who complained. Core has a policy that reads: "No CORE member may harass or discriminate against anyone on the basis - real or perceived - of race, religion, creed, ethnicity, age, disability, gender presentation or expression, or sexual orientation.

"What justification does the Steering Committee have for using inflammatory rhetoric like 'unsubstantiated gossip and false accusations,'" he wrote.

Heiserman fears a smear campaign will be the next step taken to oust him completely.

Teachers have complained that they have been kicked off the CTU Members Facebook page. Certainly, those who control the medium control the message, and if they feel certain comments go against what the union is fighting for, then they can just pull the plug.

It was done with President Trump when the attack on Capitol Hill led to Twitter shutting down his account.

CTU communications director Ronnie Reese, who monitors the CTU social media pages, said to quote the late Karen Lewis - does it unify us? Does it make us stronger? 

If not, off with their heads!

Ironically, this is the same argument Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her big business sponsors make to argue against having an elected school board. There would be too much fighting among various interests.

Does the union know what's best for its members, and those who disagree should just keep their mouths shut?

Another teachers caucus named Members First would disagree. 

Second City Teachers will talk to them next about what it means to have alternative voices unedited and uncensored.

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